full swing ahead (Patreon)

this is weird. instead of not having anything tangible to post, i actually have a lot! kinda like three sets of stuff, two of each are still in their own motion. i guess productivity isn't a myth?????? 

first up is something that has taken unacceptably long to get to this point for various reasons. it's the starlight combat model for nova! 

i chose not to post the lines or full color art for this before because it was a little awkward-- i basically was trying out what is probably the 2d version of soft-t-posing so it would be easier to draw all of her individual moving pieces, just to see how that went. i'm unsure how i feel about it still. gotta do more. 

but this is also (what should be) the first fully functional combat model we have! karus' was done as a test first, but it doesn't have as many moving parts as it probably needs, hence him not being able to hold his weapon properly. we'll fix him up next, but in the meantime, we out here animating nova!

(give this one some time to load-- took a minute on my end)

the quality is slightly decreased for the gif but she here! she's breathing heavy cuz the girl's got some issues or something.

although i chose her as a random enemy to make the combat model for, nova has proven to be a unique challenge to animate because of her weapon. i'm very much still learning DragonBones, the animation program for this, so when i first started i had a lot of issue with getting the scissors to function properly because the two blades are separate pieces so they can move. specifically, they have to rotate around their center. so i had to move one arm to where i wanted it, but then the other blade was separated, so i had to move that to the angle i wanted and make the hand position match, but then the rotation was off, so i had to fix the first arm, but then the second was off, and back and forth forever and it was just a big ball of suffering :[

so.
what i decided to try was basically mangling her structure horribly.
so you know how most people have two arms, right? i hope so.
because, as far as dragonbones knows, she only has one.
normally her model's pieces would be attached like body > upper arm > forearm > hand > weapon,  and the same for the other arm.
but what i had to do was remove the back arm and make it more like body > upper arm > forearm > hand > weapon > other half of the weapon > other hand > other fore arm > other upper arm
so basically she only has one arm but it's a really, really long one arm.
doing it this way allows me to control the scissor's position with the front hand, the rotation with the second blade, and then position the rest of the arm behind her wherever it needs to be according to where her hands landed. it makes this soooo much easier!

so what you see above is her idle-attack pose. characters will have two idle poses depending whether it's their turn to attack or defend. here's her defensive pose!

the movement is simpler cuz she's tense. but she flinches every now and then cuz she's really tense.

next up is her attack animations. i've already done one and started the second, but i'll share those when they're all finished another day. i plan on having three basic attack animations per character so that they can be randomized and the battle scene will look less stale. hopefully that'll be enough!

so for now, back to reborn. all of the animation reviews from my somewhat-absence have been done now! here's smeargle's batch. he only had 10 moves to review. less than the others, but he passed five of them. nature's madness is the one i'm not showing here but it was a home run on his part-- didn't require any revision from his first try. the kid's got stuff.

but the others:

up first is spirit shackle! this one was previewed during the E18 alpha/beta and received a lot of compliments for the concept, but it just wasn't done so i couldn't actually include it in E18. now it is much smoother, and doesn't have that janky spotlight graphic i hate so much. 

.........aaaaaand the rest are all legendary moves because i guess smeargle is really good at this or something

most OP leafeon, ever.

the other things i have for you all relate to the gym as i said before! it's not quite done, but it's reasonably close.  just gotta make a few more graphics and loose ends.
i've been taking step by step screenshots as i make it, so i will post those for you since you already know who it belongs to, and in this gym i don't think showing the map will take away from the gym's "puzzle".
however, i will do that in a different post, on a different day so as to not spoil those who wish to protect their virgin eyes. i will see you then, and also tomorrow at 4p EST for more rejuvenation!